As announced in the budget, the government will further expand the TPRS to three new industries, namely security providers and investigation services; road freight transport; and computer system design and related services.

The extension follows the earlier introduction of TPRS to the courier and cleaning industries as announced in the 2017-18 budget, with that set to kick in from 1 July 2018 if the bill is passed.

For the three new industries, businesses will need to ensure that they collect information from 1 July 2019, with the first annual report required in August 2020.

The measure is estimated to have a net gain to the budget of $605.8 million in fiscal balance terms over the forward estimates period.

Speaking to Accountants Daily, CPA Australia head of policy, Paul Drum, believes the extension is a natural progression following the successful results of TPRS in the building and construction industry.

“That has caught us off guard. They are very pleased with the results they have so far with the building and construction industry,” said Mr Drum.

“From a compliance point of view, those people are now going to have additional compliance obligations and it's going to be work for them and work for the tax and accounting advisory community as well to ensure they can get them into the system in an appropriate way and meet their new obligations.”

Thomson Reuters tax consultant Ian Murray-Jones said that while the measure was welcomed, it did come as a surprise.

“I didn't see that one coming and I don't understand why those specific industries have been picked out,” said Mr Murray-Jones.

“I would have thought there was a pretty good audit trail for those sorts of payments.”

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